• by editor , David Baker , July 3, 2006

In a perfect world, we could deliver Hollywood-style ads with highly engaging, fully streamed motion pictures, illustrating our offering with exciting audio and imagery. When I did these for a former company, we had (in my humble opinion) some of the coolest e-mails. Yet there are pitfalls to using rich media in the e-mail channel today. If you are considering it, you should know what can and cannot be done, what the experience is that you are really delivering, and the issues you will have to address. Here are answers to the questions I get asked most often about rich media:

What is rich media e-mail? This may seem like a question we should all know the answer to, but many of us don't know exactly. It is any dynamic media--audio, animation, or video--that is embedded in an e-mail. It can be Flash, streaming video or a combination of these.

Why can't I deliver rich media e-mail now? E-mail ISPs put restrictions on active script in e-mail. They did this to protect users from hackers putting malicious code in e-mail. Many of the mainstream providers strip out tags, JavaScript and anything that could be perceived as malicious such as forms, CSS and others. Yet this script is needed to enable a video stream to be called from the server or to enable a FLASH movie to play. There is nothing you as a sender can do to change this.

What is the user experience? In the perfect scenario, the rich media would play as users open the e-mail with a beautiful mix of animation of sound. The reality is they will get a static image, a truncated message or a dead video console. Worse, the delivered experience varies by e-mail client. For instance, AOL displays a lovely blank screen where the animation ought to be. Outlook truncates e-mail where the animation was resident. However, with the emergence of new rendering tools from Return Path, Pivotal Veracity and Lyris, understanding how different e-mail clients display is no longer an issue. You can easily see the user experience in multiple modes of many different e-mail environments.

Does this mean rich media e-mail is dead? Absolutely not! But the dynamic portion has been redirected to landing pages. The real question is, "Is your e-mail the notification agent or the container?" For rich media e-mail, I've found that a tempting setup in the e-mail will drive lots of readers to your enriched landing pages and generate more response to your program. There are several nice design treatments you can use to build on this experience. Here's an example of an effective e-mail that "tricks" the user into clicking through: http://www.avimailer.com/mgm_get_sh1/index.htm

If only a small percentage of your population could receive this rich experience in their e-mail software, would you consider doing it? I think it depends on who that small percentage is. If they are high-value customers or prospects, and you know a richer experience would move them through your sales funnel or make them ready to buy, it might be worth the effort to try using rich media.

The industries for which rich media works really well are those that rely on a rich experience to present their products or commercials, and have a need to replicate mainstream media content. Automotive, entertainment and hospitality industries are obvious examples, but there has been more and more traction on the b-to-b side to deliver product demonstrations and seminar snippets. Here is a link to a company with a lot of examples that might help spur your creative juices.

Rich media in e-mail does increase response, so I'd encourage you to try it as you would any other form of creative treatment.